what i heard from our experts, from the department of defense, from the state department, from usaid as well as a range of outside experts and one witness who testified from bamaco, the capital of mali, is was of concern to me. this is the largest controlled area in the world. in the north, extremists have imposed a harsh and strict version of sharia, or islamic law, and gross human rights violations. many people have heard of timbuktu but don't know it's a city in northern mali. in a site where extremists have behaved much like the taliban did in afghanistan before 9/11, destroying sacred and religious historic artifacts, imposing a harsh version of sharia that has meant amputations, stoning, violation of women's rights and free speech and religious free exercise rights, fundamentalling changing the tolerance and inclusive history of mali and creating with it a humanitarian crisis as more than 400,000 malians have fled, either internally displaced within mali or going to neighboring countries with refugees. with growing ties between these terrorists and nigeria, libya and throughout